Diver Who Found Shipwreck Out To Sink State

September 16, 1992|By James Hill.

The man who found the 132-year-old sunken wreckage of the Lady Elgin in the lake off Waukegan will ask a Cook County judge Friday to grant an injunction to keep the state away from what he says is ``his property.``

And while the 3-year-old legal battle over who owns the sidewheel steamer continues, the attorney for the diver who found the ship says artifact pirates have been making off with goods.

Diver Harry Zych discovered the wreckage in the summer of 1989 in an undisclosed location off Waukegan, but the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency is arguing that the Lady Elgin is state property.

``We`ve been telling the state for years that we feared this would happen,`` said Paul Keller, Zych`s attorney. ``The state people have been out diving in the area and that calls a lot of attention to the area, which had been a secret. Up until a month ago, the state didn`t even know where the wreck was.

``With the injunction, we are trying to prevent any larger number of people than already know the location from disturbing the wreck,`` Keller said. ``There are a lot of people interested in taking souvenirs from the Lady Elgin.``

Keller said his client knows it is unlikely that anything of ``intrinsic value`` will be found in the wreckage, but he wants to raise the artifacts anyway so they can be placed in a museum, Keller said.

The Lady Elgin was a luxury steamer that set off from Wisconsin on the morning of Sept. 8, 1860, to a Democratic rally in Chicago for presidential candidate Stephen Douglas, who was running against Abraham Lincoln.

On the return trip that night, it was rammed by the schooner Augusta, which had no navigation lights.

The Lady Elgin`s crew tried to patch the gaping hole, but the engine and pumps failed, the hull quickly filled with water and the ship broke into pieces. Some 300 people died in one of the worst disasters in Great Lakes history.

The state wants artifacts that have a high probability of being stolen to be raised and the rest of the ship left submerged as a divers park.

But Keller said he has heard reports from the Underwater Archeological Society, a recreational diving group based in Chicago that was enlisted by the state to examine the site, that there has been evidence of tampering.

Officials of the state Preservation Agency said Tuesday they have heard no such accounts.

``No one has come to our agency to complain about people diving around the wreck of the Lady Elgin that are not supposed to be there,`` said David Blanchette, spokesman for the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.

``Certainly there are boats in the area, but there are boats all over Lake Michigan. Who`s to say they are diving for the Lady Elgin?``

Zych does.

``We`ve had more problems in the past week and a half of the states`

involvement than we have had in 3 1/2 years,`` Zych said, hoping that the injunction would not come too late. ``The archeological society has put their flag up out there and let everybody know (the location). We`re trying to preserve this thing.``

Keller said he and his client have been trying for years to reach a compromise with the state agency over the excavation of the site, but they have been rejected each time. The state denies that claim.

One of the key issues has been funding of the excavation, Keller said. The state says it doesn`t have money for excavation, but Zych already has secured private funds.

``If the state doesn`t have the money to do anything, why do they have these people out there diving for them?`` Keller said. ``And why are they preventing us from doing anything?``

But the agency`s Blanchette suggested that once the ownership issue has been settled in court, a cooperative excavation may be possible.

The Illinois Department of Conservation and the U.S. Coast Guard currently patrol the area to prevent unauthorized diving, Keller said. A federal court injunction, issued in late 1990, prevents anyone except Zych and the state from diving in the area.

Zych found the ship`s whistle on the bottom of the lake in the summer of 1989. And in December 1990, after a long battle with the state, a U.S. District Court judge ruled Zych has clear claim to the wreckage of the Lady Elgin.

But the preservation agency successfully got that ruling overturned by the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, and the entire matter was sent to Cook County Circuit Court.

The agency is asking the court to declare the state the legal owner of the Lady Elgin.

``We feel that several state laws, plus the Federal Abandoned Shipwreck Act, say the ship belongs to us,`` Blanchette said.

But Zych is determined to fight.

``We`re going all the way on this one and it ain`t over until the fat lady sings,`` he said angrily. ``There are nine guys in Washington D.C. (the Supreme Court) who may end up having a say in all this before it`s over.